A data fusion framework for an integrated plant-wide information system

The adoptions of e-business, e-service, e-management, and e-process in enterprises are accelerating across all the industrial and business sectors around the world. Correspondingly, an integrated plant-wide information system for manufacturers becomes fundamental to their continuous successes when customers are able to place orders of products and/or services via the Internet. But the lack of an effective (data) link between manufacturing and the supply chain, or other office information systems prohibits many of them from deploying an integrated plant-wide information system. This paper presents an approach to the implementation of such an e-DataLink (EDL), which facilitates system integration between manufacturing and office planning. By incorporating the concept of Virtual Production Lines (VPL) into the EDL, the computations of the EDL become information-centric rather than process-centric, resulting in delivering shop floor data to office planning in the right context at right time. In addition, using the XML technology a generic data format for system information (such as tasks, statuses of equipment, consumables, and products) will be employed in the EDL. The use of the well-recognized universal data exchange language and appropriate data fusion framework makes system integration much easier, practical, and cost-effective.